HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Several families in Hallandale Beach are saying a neighboring construction site is dangerous.
They told Local 10′s Jeff Weinsier that debris is flying everywhere, causing damage to cars and property.
Dust and what appears to be bits of concrete has been coming down like snow.
Irina Pavlova’s car is covered in the debris, and it’s not coming off.
“You saw the car, it is terrible,” she said to Local 10′s Jeff Weinsier. “It’s terrible. I believe it is cement.”
Weinsier witnessed the debris falling as a demolition crew worked to bring down an old hotel on South Ocean Drive.
Mother nature’s winds sending the construction mess into the Taromina Apartments.
Resident Jose Andino’s told Weinsier that a piece of debris caused a large crack in his windshield. He said a foreman from the demo job said he would be over to take a look, but never came back.
Another resident, Patti Randolph, asked the workers to wipe down her car after it was so covered in the mess that she couldn’t see out of her windshield.
“I went to leave and I couldn’t see out the front at all,” Randolph said.
She now regrets the request, as the hardened cement left a permanent swirl mark.
“What a mistake it was, because It ended up scratching the car,” she said.
No one at the site would answer questions when Weinsier stopped by on Wednesday.
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper is currently out of town but will be attending a commission meeting on Wednesday night through Zoom.
“That is unacceptable,” Cooper told Local 10. “I’m frustrated and I am going to be discussing it tonight at city meeting.”
She has been to the apartment building and seen the damage firsthand.
She said in similar projects, contractors were required to covere cars, but for some reason that wasn’t the case this time.
Cooper added that the demo company is operating within their permit.
“Right now, they are operating within the codes, and within perimeters of what we can officially institute,” she said.
Cooper said in the future, the city needs to do more to protect residents from this kind of situation.
“We need to institute a far more rigorous component within our code,” she said.
The mayor also said she has a commitment from the new developer to clean things up, but if those cars are covered in specs of concrete, the longer it’s on them, the compounds could eat at the finish of the paint.